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Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin during a public meeting last week introduced plans for a temporary ice skating rink this winter on Venice Beach. Bonin during a March 18 visit to the Venice Neighborhood Council board meeting said more needed to be done to create a family-friendly environment in Venice Beach. He pointed to city success stories at MacArthur Park and Pershing Square as examples of positive programming that turned formerly rundown areas into family-friendly environments. Bonin said he was looking for an idea that would provide additional revenue to Venice Beach while providing a positive attraction. “I’ve often thought what could be more iconic, and nowhere else but in Los Angeles, could you ice skate down...

By Paul Chavez, Venice Dispatch A new mural depicting legendary Venice Beach muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger flexing his massive biceps has gone up near Muscle Beach on the other side of the building displaying another local hero, “The Doors” frontman Jim Morrison. The Schwarzenegger mural in the 1800 block of Speedway marks the latest Venice artwork by muralist Jonas Never, who also painted the sweeping “Touch of Venice” mural that adorns the east side of the Danny’s eatery on Windward Avenue. It’s the second time that Never, 31, has provided a bookend mural opposite famed muralist Rip Cronk, creator of the 1990 Morrison mural and 1989’s “Venice Reconstituted” on the west side of Danny’s. The eastern end of the three-story...

By Paul Chavez, Venice Dispatch Everyone comes to Venice for a reason. Set designer Bruce Rodgers was studying architecture and theater set design at Texas Tech University when he started gravitating over here. “It was the hotbed of architecture when I went to school in the 1980s,” Rodgers said during a recent interview. “I always dreamed of being in Venice and ended up there.” Venice in the 1980s was undergoing a post-modern architectural transformation with architect Frank Gehry setting the standard for a unique fusion between art and architecture. Gehry’s Binocular Building (1989) on Main Steet is the most prominent example with artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s giant binoculars integrated within Gehry’s design. The building, which...

Some streets in Venice will be closed Sunday morning for a half-marathon race. The Allstate Life Insurance Los Angeles 13.1 Marathon will start at 7 a.m. at Rose Avenue and the Venice Beach boardwalk and head south around Marina del Rey and into Dockweiler State Beach. In Venice, vehicle traffic on Pacific near Windward avenues and on a stretch of Venice Boulevard will be closed. (See the attached map for details.) A 5k race also will start and end at Dockweiler State Beach. Allstate Life Insurance and Give Your Sole will be collecting moderately used athletic shoes before and after the run. Runners can donate their running shoes when they cross the finish line in exchange for a...